During winter, hedgehogs migrate to each other to keep warm, but due to the sharp spines on their back, they tend to hurt each other when they get too close. This can relate to humans, the closer two beings come to one another in a relationship, the more likely it might be for them to inflict psychological pain on each other. Yet if they remain apart, they each might feel the roughly-equivalent pain of loneliness. A person who suffers from the hedgehog's dilemma will usually avoid becoming too close or involved with someone, due to fear of another similar, possibly painful, experience, such as they had experienced in the past.